Students of Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES) and Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (IITR)will soon be able to participate in joint PhD programmesand IIT Roorkee students can do projects on the ongoing activities at ARIES utilizing the various existing and upcoming facilities at ARIES.

This will be possible through a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between ARIES, an autonomous institute under the Department of Science & Technology (DST), Govt. of India, with Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (IITR) for academic cooperation in areas of mutual interest.

This MoU will foster collaboration, and facilitate advancement of knowledge on the basis of reciprocity, best effort, mutual benefit, and frequent interactions.Furthermore, ARIES and IIT Roorkeehave agreed to jointly sponsor research, development and consultancy; exchange of faculty, scientists and students; exchange of scientific and technical matter; hold joint conferences, workshops and short-term courses.

On this occasion, Director, ARIES,Prof.Dipankar Banerjee, asserted, “ARIES will facilitate to host scientific instrument(s) from IIT Roorkee for mutual benefits of faculties and students of both the institutions.”

“The aim of this partnership is to bring the researchers of IIT Roorkee and ARIES closer to each other so as to use their respective strengths to jointly address interesting scientific and engineering problems,”said Director, IIT Roorkee, Prof.Ajit K Chaturvedi,.

ARIES and IIT Roorkee recognize their strengths in research and education in one or more disciplines of Science, Engineering, Management, and Social Sciences, and their mutual interest in engaging themselves in academic cooperation.

ARIES is one of the leading research institutes which specializes in observational Astronomy & Astrophysics, Solar Physics and Atmospheric Sciences. The main research interests of Astronomy & Astrophysics division are in solar, planetary, stellar, galactic and extra-galactic astronomy including stellar variabilities, X-ray binaries, star clusters, nearby galaxies, quasars, and inherently transient events like supernovae and highly energetic gamma ray bursts.ARIES hosts three existing optical telescopes 3.6m DOT (India’s largest), 1.3m DFOT and 1.04m ST and the upcoming 4m ILMT along with a 206.5 MHz ST Radar.

IIT Roorkee is an institute of national importance imparting higher education in engineering, sciences, management, architecture and planning, and humanities and socialsciences. Since its establishment in 1847, the Institute has played a vital role in providing technical human resources and know-how to the country.